Kicking the habit to the curb

Soon Staten Islanders might pause before they fish that cigarette from their pocketbook or jacket, insert it between their lips and flick the lighter.

In upcoming months, borough residents will be bombarded with anti-smoking literature and smoking-cessation resources to counter the all-too-common perception of cigarettes as a guilty pleasure.

Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-HammelA "stop smoking" campaign was launched today at Borough Hall. Danielle Amodeo, 17, a student at New Dorp High School who spoke out today against the perils of smoking, performs volunteer work for the American Cancer Society.

The Staten Island Quits campaign launched today at Borough Hall with expectations that tobacco addicts will get the help they need to ditch the deadly and ugly habit, for the sake of their health and their families.

The joint effort of the American Cancer Society, the Coalition for a Smoke Free City and the borough president's office also will strive to keep teens and 'tweens from picking up their first smoke by involving the community in fighting invasive advertising.

"We've known for years that cigarettes are deadly, yet Staten Islanders continue to use tobacco," said Ann Merlino, president of the board of the American Cancer Society, Staten Island Region, citing the borough's dubious distinction of having the highest adult and teen smoking rate in the city -- 27 percent of adults and 15 percent of teens - and, not surprisingly, the highest rate of lung cancer and other tobacco-related diseases. "We don't just want to get Staten Islanders to quit; this is also to get them to change their attitudes about smoking that they have been passing down to their children."

The campaign will employ a three-pronged approach: Making nicotine replacement therapies widely and easily available; reaching out to schools and Realtors to enlighten Islanders about the importance of smoke-free homes and apartment buildings, and convincing deli owners and other business members to cancel advertising, which is often invidiously positioned at child's eye-level.

The drive will be fueled largely by volunteers, and funded by a $30,000 grant from the Coalition for a Smoke Free City.

"It's time we really stop playing with this nonsense," said Borough President James P. Molinaro, betraying emotion as he discussed his wife's death from lung cancer due to smoking. "We have to teach our children and get them not to start. All of us have been there, been 15, and you think you're 10 feet tall and bulletproof.... It's us against the advertisers."